ASCENT CAPITAL AFRICA LTD is seeking to raise Ksh12 billion to finance its new Ascent Rift Valley Fund II.
Lucas Kranck, the firm’s co-founder, told Bloomberg that it is going to the market for a second round of funding after a successful debut of the Ksh8 billion Ascent Rift Valley Fund in 2015.
“We have started speaking with development-finance institutions because they need time to do due diligence and make decisions,” Kranck said. “We also hope to get more Kenyan institutional money into the fund.”
Through its Mauritius-based Ascent Rift Valley Fund II, the investment firm will first target Ksh9 billion, followed by the remainder by the fall of the third quarter of 2019.
In 2015, the firm raised the funds from foreign investors and local pension funds including Kenya Power Pension Fund, Nation Media Group Pension Fund, development financiers CDC of the UK, FMO (the Netherlands), Norfund (Norway), and OeEB (Austria).
Ascent has invested in Medpharm Holdings Africa, an Ethiopian diagnostic laboratory, and Uganda’s Chims Africa Ltd, a company that operates a chain of 130 MTN mobile money agencies in Uganda.
